Part 2: Work Hard
Unlike my previous races in Subic where I stayed in a hotel, this time I had taken a spare room in the Team Red Cross Triathlon house in Subic Homes, where pros Michael Murphy and Mitch Robins had taken up residence. On race morning I hitched a ride in a van with them to Transition 1. This small change in routine was sufficient enough to throw me off, and in the pre-dawn drive I realized I’d forgotten my drink bottles and flat tire repair kit at the house. It was too late to go back for it, so I decided I would be able to grab some bottles at the first hydration station on the bike course. As for a flat tire, well I was about to gamble that on the smooth roads of SCTEX I wouldn’t pick up a stray nail or glass shard…
Notice the empty bottle cages.
Apart from the lack of bottles, I set up my bike my usual way with my shoes on it. It was just as well because it was a long way from the relay tent to our spot in transition and to the mount line. I asked one of the roving mechanics to inflate my tires, but didn’t think to give my rear wheel a spin even after it spent the whole night rammed into a slot with a prevailing wind pushing all our bikes to one side. That would come back to haunt me during the race.
Belinda was half-walking, half-limping when I saw her; she said she had a hamstring problem and could barely run. Still, she counted her blessings because Crowie’s back had acted up and he could barely move, much less start the race. So this development opened up the field and the podium.
As transition closed, I finally managed to come across John, my swimmer. He handed me his things, which I stuffed into a backpack with my things. After his swim, I would give the backpack to him for safekeeping while I did the bike leg. He would then make his way to T2 and meet up with me after I passed our timing chip to Sugz our runner (who had been required to check in at T2 by 6am along with all other relay runners). This way we would both have clean dry clothes to change into, and our valuables would be safe.
After John left, I made friends with the other relay cyclists. It reminded me a lot of my first Ironman 70.3 experience in Cebu where I was also a relay cyclist. This made the time go by fast, and soon enough swimmers started streaming into transition.
We’re all happy we don’t have to run after a hard bike leg!
Sooner than expected, John came charging into transition. After a snappy hand-over of the timing chip, I ran to my bike and hightailed it out of there.
I had left my bike on the big chainring because the first seven kilometers of the bike leg was reasonably flat and I could capitalize on the freshness of my legs. I was determined to push the whole way through and leave my run legs on the bike course.
I felt fast and powerful. In my mind and on my lips was one mantra: “Hold nothing back.” I bounced up that climb up to Tipo Expressway with confidence, overtaking many who were conserving their run legs. At the hydration station I snapped up the bottles I needed, then continued at a pretty good pace.
Then, it happened after I went over some speed strips. A rhythmic squealing started coming from my rear tires. I stopped once, twice, thrice trying to move my integrated brake calipers away from the braking surface, but to no avail. I was wasting time and getting passed by so many people! I finally gave up and just rode the bike that way until the next aid station, where there was a mechanic (thankfully!) who figured out it was a misaligned rear wheel. He just loosened my rear skewer, wiggled the wheel back into proper alignment, then re-tightened the skewer. Suddenly my wheel was good as new, and I then set off to chase down all who had overtaken me.
I took some risks on this ride: overtaking packs of cyclists (who may or may not have been drafting), passing cyclists I would normally have been content to let get away, just seeing how fast I could go. On this course I found that very easy to do. The rolling course was definitely not technical, so you could see an uphill from some distance away and could then select proper gear ratio to ride smoothly up it. I stayed down in my aerobars as long as I could, and this saved me from the brunt of the headwind people say they experienced on the outbound portion. With only one U-turn on the whole route, it was so easy to maintain momentum to build speed and keep it. Also on the inbound portion, the headwind became a tailwind which propelled me even faster back to T2.
*yawn* So when does this get hard?
Apart from a slightly hairy descent from Tipo to Subic where I was stuck behind a truck and in front of an SUV, the bike course was straightforward and relatively secure. Also, a cloud had covered the sun for most of the morning, so the temperature was quite cool while I was out riding.
Unfortunately for Sugz, those clouds dissipated just in time for his run when I rocked up to T2. After resting, dressing, and eating, I decided to head out onto the run course and cheer people on. The sun was brutal, the heat enervating… I wanted to give people a nice feel-good boost, which I knew they would appreciate.
Finally, Sugz emerged from the treeless, hot run course to take our mixed relay team to 4th place. I was hanging out at the finish area and reminded him to zip up his top to look good for the cameras.
In all it had been a great day and we all had outdone ourselves. I had actually felt good getting off the bike, which meant that in the future I could take risks and make it hurt on the bike, but have enough left for a good run.
That night I celebrated with friends from Team Red Cross Triathlon and even got the men’s winner Tim Reed, 2nd placer Mitch Robins, and 3rd placer Josh Amberger to eat a balut each!
Century Tuna Ironman 70.3 Subic was one of the hottest (literally) races in the country, and my hat’s off to anyone who did the whole thing. I was definitely glad to have been there as just part of a relay.
Thank you to our sponsors for Team Endure — Mizuno and Spyder. Thank you also to Ceepo and Century Tuna! Congratulations to Sunrise for pulling off another great race. While any inaugural race will have its growing pains, I’m glad that the tri scene in this country has grown so much to be able to accommodate not just one half-ironman, but two each from the two biggest brands in the world.
Haha cute